The Bizarre Detective Agency

Chapter 643: The Heretics' Leaflets

The gulls, once a common sight even in the harshest winters, had vanished from the skies of Belfast. A dead silence shrouded the ruins.

Anna flew along the coastline, bypassing the ominous Port Roadster as she headed toward the cliff that felt like home.

Back in the shelter, Lu Li took a notepad and pen from a drawer. He opened it to a clean page, uncapped the pen, and began to write without turning around:

“Go get Adamfiya. If Jimmy knows how to write, have him come too.”

“My brother is illiterate,” Remi sighed, watching Lu Li’s actions with curiosity.

“But can he copy?”

“Hmm... I think so. I’ll go get him.” Suppressing her confusion, Remi left the cave to fetch them.

“You told him you had a way to deal with them... What are you planning?” Anna asked, having stayed behind.

Lu Li didn’t answer. She leaned in slightly, peering over his shoulder as he jotted down lines of text. It seemed she had already guessed his plan.

“Please bring me four pens and notepads,” Lu Li requested.Anna had recently brought back a large haul of supplies, including pens. Three boxes, each with fifteen new refills, would last them a long time.

Anna brought the pens and stayed by his side. A moment later, Remi returned with her brother and Adamfiya.

After finishing the page, Lu Li tore it out and pushed it to the edge of the table, where a stack of notepads and pens already lay.

“Please, copy this several dozen times.”

Remi walked over to the table and picked up the sheet of paper.

[We, the believers in Him]

[In His name, in the city of former glory, Belfast, we proclaim:]

[Our Lord will soon be summoned here, and this land shall henceforth belong to Him]

[Evil spirits, spirits of defilement, anomalies, evil gods—all who harbor evil will be cruelly sacrificed or exiled]

[But we also welcome new brothers and sisters]

[Those who wish to become the Lord’s faithful servants are welcome in the southern Elm Forest]

[Follow the distorted tracks and seek our lair]

[The Lord awaits you]

After reading it to herself, Remi recited the contents aloud for Jimmy and Adamfiya.

“You want to sic the anomalies of Belfast on these heretics?” Remi put the paper down. “Clever. That’s why you said you couldn’t guarantee old Miklos’s safety.”

“But how can you be sure the anomalies will fall for it and go after the heretics?” she asked.

“Imagine a group of brazen thieves planning to rob your neighbor,” Lu Li said, pushing an inkwell toward the stack of notepads and pens. “The neighbor himself will react far more strongly than we, who just live nearby.”

The inhabitants of the Elm Forest were merely worried that the heretics who had seized Belfast would extend their tendrils into the surrounding areas. But for the anomalies within Belfast itself, it would mean certain death.

Anomalies were never a united front.

“So what’s going on?” Jimmy felt he was losing the thread of their conversation, and the contents of the leaflet were a mystery to him.

“I’ll explain as we copy,” Remi said, taking some notepads and pens. She grabbed an oil lamp and headed for a writing desk by the shelves in the cave.

Lu Li leaned forward, about to continue writing, but Anna gently covered his hand with her own. “Let us do the copying. You shouldn’t leave any traces.”

“Anna’s right,” Remi’s voice drifted from the outer cave. “Some anomalies possess the power of curses, and some of those are particularly sophisticated. For example, they can trace things back to the source and unleash curses upon the person who originally wrote the text.”

Jimmy, who had just been trying to mimic Remi’s movements with the pen, froze. “Curses?”

“We’re anomalies. Curses don’t scare us,” Remi retorted dismissively.

That was an exaggeration. Anomalies could fall victim to curses too; their resistance was just higher, like the difference in strength between an adult and a child.

Click.

Lu Li snapped the cap back on the pen and closed the notepad.

The pages fell shut, and a single sheet tucked inside fluttered out.

On it were the initial reminders Lu Li had written for himself upon his arrival: ‘Find out where I am,’ ‘Accumulate enough shillings,’ ‘Find a new place to live.’

Most of the items had been crossed out. Only a single line remained.

[Find a way to get out of here]

Lu Li tucked the sheet back into the notepad and put it away in the drawer.

Those words had lost their meaning now.

Lu Li cleared a space at the table for Anna. She, along with Remi and the others in the outer cave, immersed themselves in their work, diligently copying the text like students.

A little over an hour later, they had accumulated a stack of more than thirty leaflets.

Jimmy was forced to stop, rubbing his aching wrist. His little finger and the side of his palm were smudged with ink stains. His body had been weakened for too long; any physical activity was a struggle.

Anna and Remi wrote for another half an hour, barely managing to produce fifty copies of the leaflet.

It was ten in the morning—plenty of time to post them all over Belfast for any anomalies that could read.

Only Anna could do it. Adamfiya was just a ghost, and Remi wasn’t particularly good at hiding. Besides, after posting the leaflets, someone needed to lie low and watch to see if the anomalies noticed them and headed for the Elm Forest.

Taking the leaflets, which were designed to provoke the anomalies, Anna departed from the Elm Forest.

Fifty was not a lot. Anna didn’t waste them on the districts surrounding the forest or other areas. She slipped into the southern part of the Belfast ruins, the side closest to the Elm Forest, and began posting the leaflets in the most conspicuous places.

At crossroads, on abandoned carriages that blocked the streets.

But even fifty wasn’t enough. Anna only managed to cover five or six city blocks.

Anna retreated to the Oak District, which led to the Elm Forest, and hid on the second floor of a residential building, settling in to observe.

She waited for an hour, but nothing happened. The streets below were deserted and silent.

Had the anomalies not noticed the leaflets, or had they simply not worked...?

After waiting another ten minutes, Anna returned to the cliff and reported the results to Lu Li. “It might have worked, but there are too few leaflets. We covered less than a twentieth of Belfast.”

There clearly wasn’t enough time to copy hundreds more.

Lu Li thought for a moment, then pulled out a map of Belfast. Finding the right spot, he tapped it with his finger: [The Belfast Today Gazette]

If the newspaper office hadn’t burned down, there should still be printing presses, along with a supply of paper and ink.

That would be enough to get the word out.

Judging by the level of technology in this world, the printing presses were probably platen presses or early offset models.

In any case, he hoped the machines didn’t require electricity or could be operated by hand.

However, when Lu Li suggested they go to the newspaper office, an argument broke out between him and Anna.

Anna had allowed Lu Li to go to the Ghost Prison because Remi was with him and the path was relatively safe.

Belfast, however, was different—anomalies swarmed everywhere: in the ruins, in the houses, even in the sewers. And Lu Li’s twelve units of humanity made him a delicious morsel to them.

Lu Li’s reply was simple: “Do you know how to use a printing press?”